St Magnus Centre, Kirkwall, 12 April 2007

Maggie Fergusson (photo - James Fergusson).

THE ROOM set aside for Maggie Fergusson’s talk was packed. To my cost, I arrived some ten minutes before the anticipated start time and found myself struggling to obtain a seat.

Chairs were secured from all corners of the St Magnus Centre to accommodate the very many people who had come to hear Maggie talk about the man whose biography she had recently completed – George Mackay Brown. As the clock approached the appointed time I sat in eager anticipation, perched precariously on a piano stool.

Maggie’s appeal was instant. She is slightly built, but this masked a definite inner strength and conviction. From the instant she spoke the listener was aware of a strong and caring personality guided, without doubt, by a genuine affection for her subject and, evidently, Orkney.

It was around ten past eight when the tightly packed room was organised and ready to hear her speak. A warm introduction from Pam Beasant, Orkney’s first George Mackay Brown Writing Fellow and an accomplished author in her own right, set the scene well.

Buoyed up by welcoming applause, Maggie began to talk affectionately of her friendship with, and journey through the life and works of, George Mackay Brown.

That journey began not too many years before George’s death in 1996. It says something about the connection that grew between them that the writer was quick to identify Maggie as the person to complete his life’s story.

She affectionately recounted the tale of how she first met him, of how awkward the meeting had been as she placed between them a tape recorder, that “instrument of torture” as he described it.

However, it wasn’t until further meetings, and through correspondence, that their true relationship as subject and biographer would emerge.

Sadly that relationship was cut short by George’s death in 1996. As is often the case, aspects of the live of those who have passed emerge only after death and this was true of George Mackay Brown.

Maggie described how she was introduced to bundles of letters held in archives and private ownership. These letters illustrated the loving relationship between George and the women he had met and cared for during his life, and provided further insight into the very private life of the man who travelled little beyond the familiar surroundings of Stromness.

Maggie spoke of her work on the biography with great affection. It was clear to all that this had been no ordinary commission, more a labour of love.

On completing the work she spoke of a sense of elation at having completed the text which was quickly followed by a deep sense of loss. She described it somewhat poignantly, “like a traveller who at the end of a long journey required to hand in my passport”.

When she had finished her talk, Maggie answered a few questions from the audience. One asked whether Maggie felt that George’s writing might have been improved upon, or enriched, had he travelled more.

She was quick to say no, further qualifying this by suggesting that travel may have diluted, rather than added to his writing. Archie Bevan, a lifelong friend and member of the audience agreed with this view.

Viewed differently, it can be said that George Mackay Brown travelled extensively, just not in the physical sense. Through his writings and correspondence with friends and followers far and wide he travelled many miles, intertwining his life with theirs.

In an almost self-deprecating way Maggie acknowledged that other biographers, as she described it, “will lay their pictures of George on top of mine”. This may well be true but I cannot help but feel that subsequent works will have to be particularly special to challenge Maggie’s perceptive look at the life of a very private man.

At the end of the evening Maggie admitted to her fear of speaking to an audience in Orkney about her completed work; a fear of speaking about the man in the company of his friends, in the place where he lived. She needn’t have worried. It was clear from the reception that Orkney has taken Maggie to its heart.

I hadn’t read Maggie’s biography before I went to hear her talk. I have since secured a copy of the book and am half way through. It is a truly wonderful read. Maggie captures not only the essence of the man but sets his life firmly within the landscape of Orkney which had so much influence on his work.

Her talk and her book have also reawakened in me a desire to return to the works I last read many years ago. It’s as though I have been introduced to a new author, a new friend. That, surely, is the mark of a good biographer.

(The Life of George Mackay Brown by Maggie Fergusson is published by John Murray).

© Elaine Grieve, 2007

Links

• Maggie Fergusson interview